Apple is holding an education-focused event on March 27th

Is the VW Space Up! interface developed by Apple?

Nice interior huh? And how 'bout that 7-inch touchscreen display slapped onto the center console. Pretty sweet right? You're looking at the inside of VW's third iteration of their Space Up! -- the Space Up! blue -- just revealed at the LA auto show. Now try this on. Reader Joona wonders if this is the result of recent collaborations between Apple and VW. After thinking about it some, we're starting to wonder too. As Autoblog describes it, the concept touchscreen monitor "controls all conceivable functions" and is meant to demonstrate how future human-machine interfaces might look and operate. The touchscreen (no mention of multi-touch support) uses proximity sensors to react to gestures, apparently, without actually touching the display. The user can simply touch the "main menu carousel" to navigate to the desired category or manipulate the system with simple hand gestures near the display. Autoblog says, "Visually, this control is just as spectacular as it is intuitive." Now, chew on this for a second. VW announced earlier this week that all new VW models in 2008 2009 will have touchscreens. Is this what Apple has in store for us at January's MacWorld? Who knows, but it's a compelling story, eh? Now, anyone have a video of this in action? A few more pics after the break.

Update: Found a video on YouTube. It's a slightly older version of the Space Up! revealed in Tokyo but the control panel looks the same. Interface in action at about 1:10 in and then again at 4:00.

Update 2: Jumpin' Johosephat, reader Rat128 just nailed it. That looks like cover flow on the dashboard. In fact, that artwork is from Jack Johnson's In Between Dreams... an Apple fave.

Update 3: Second video found courtesy of Edmonds Car Space showing a slightly different design of the carousel in much more detail, quirks and all.